Page 50 of The Sweet Life

She sighed. “I didn’t want us to end, but given my past history, I knew we would, eventually.” She tried to gauge his reaction to what she said, but there was no judgment on his face. He was simply listening. “It wasn’t just that my ex abandoned me. I mean it wasn’t great, mostly because he left me with two babies and no income, but things hadn’t been good between us.”

Flynn opened his mouth, and she waved her hand, not wanting to talk about Aaron now.

“But my sister—I loved Cami. I’d practically raised her. I never blamed her. It wasn’t her fault that Aaron decided he loved her and followed her to Hollywood when she got her big break. In some way, he probably thought of her as his ticket to the life he’d always wanted. But what did hurt was that she left me and Willow and never looked back. It was like we didn’t matter to her. We weren’t enough. I understand what she was going through better now. But I’m not sure, even if I knew what I do now, that I could have gotten past her taking Willow from me, from us, the only family she knew.”

She shook her head. “I still can’t think about it without feeling like I’m going to throw up. I’ve never been more terrified in my life. When she brought Willow back three weeks later, I said some things I probably shouldn’t have. My sister and my mother did too. In that moment, Cami was dead to us. But no word of a lie, if she would have come to us a year, maybe two years later and told us what she’d been dealing with, we would have worked it out. But she didn’t until just last year.”

She raised a shoulder. “So those are my issues with Cami, and why it makes it a little hard for me to believe the people I love will stick around. Even my sister, my mother, and Willow and Sage are moving on with their lives, and it feels kind of like they’ve abandoned me too. I know they love me, and I’m happy for them… Okay, so I’m not happy for Sage because she’s not happy. But you see, that’s how messed up I am.” Tears welled in her eyes, and she blinked them back. “I needed you to walk away from me because I couldn’t walk away from you. I’m falling in…” She made a face. “I’m in love with you, and when you walked away tonight, it hurt so bad, I thought, how can it get any worse? If you still want me, and honestly, I wouldn’t blame you if you—”

“I’ll never stop wanting you or loving you,” he said, scooping her up and onto his lap while proceeding to kiss her senseless.

“Gia Rosetti!”

Gia pressed a hand to her heart and whipped her head around. Her mother stood by the bar. “Ma, you nearly gave me heart failure.”

“You? How do you think I feel when I walk in and see you kissing your sister’s boyfriend.” Her mother fisted her hands on her hips. “Are you trying to get back at her for Aaron? Because Flynn doesn’t deserve that. He’s a good man. He—”

“Ma, stop. This…” Gia moved her hand between herself and Flynn. “… has nothing to do with Cami or what happened with Aaron. And Flynn isn’t dating her, he’s dating me. We’ve been seeing each other for weeks.”

Her mother looked at Flynn, who nodded. “It’s true, Ms. Rosetti. Cami and I are just friends.”

“Friends who have a daughter together,” Carmen said, making a duck face. Gia didn’t know why she hadn’t seen it before, but it was the same face Cami made when she wanted to tick Gia off.

“That’s true, we do. But I’m not in love with Cami. I’m in love with Gia, and lucky me, she’s just told me she loves me too.” He smiled down at her.

“You do?” her mother asked her.

Despite Carmen’s reaction, Gia couldn’t keep the smile from her face. “I do, Ma.” She took Flynn’s hand. “Very much, and I hope you can be happy for me, for us.”

Her mother shook her head. “It’s too fast. You’ve been with him for weeks. Cami, she was with him for years. They won’t be happy, you know. Your sister and your daughter.”

She winced at her mother voicing her own fears, but Gia hid her nerves from the man she loved and the woman who knew her best with a glib smile. “That’s their problem, not mine.”

Bruno, carrying her mother’s purse, joined Carmen at the bar and gave Flynn a grateful smile. “I’m glad you’re here, son. I was worried about Gia being on her own.”

A guilty expression crossed her mother’s face before she replaced it with a judgmental one. It was just as Gia had suspected. Her mother hadn’t given a second thought to leaving her on her own. And perhaps to cover her guilt, Carmen said, “You might not be so glad he came to protect her when you hear what they’ve been up to.”

Bruno frowned. “What have they been up to?”

“Okay. We’re leaving now,” Gia said before her mother filledBruno in. He’d been her surrogate father for a quarter century, and she didn’t feel like discussing her love life with him. She’d much rather be having sex with Flynn.

“Are you okay?” Flynn asked as he closed the restaurant door behind them.

“I’m good. What about you? Having second thoughts? My mother can be a lot.”

“About you and me? I’m good, better than good, actually. I’m happy. But your mother has a point about Willow. We should probably let her know we’re together before she hears it secondhand.”

“You’re right, and what about your kids? Are they going to be okay with us being together?” She hadn’t really thought his kids would have an issue with her. She’d asked because they were talking about Willow, and she didn’t want to not mention his other children. But from the way he hesitated, she had a sneaking suspicion she was wrong. “Flynn, are they going to have a problem with me?”

“August won’t, but you know girls.” She couldn’t tell in the dim lighting, but she thought he might have grimaced before covering it with a smile. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Is this something else we need to talk about before we get to the good stuff?”

He laughed, taking her hand as they walked side by side up the stairs to her apartment. “No. I’m more than ready to blow your mind.” Which he proceeded to do before she’d even gotten the door open, and that was just with his kisses.

She dragged her mouth from his. “I need to open the door.”

“You do that,” he said, his chest pressed to her back. Hisarms came around her, and his fingers moved to the buttons of her shirt. He undid one and then two…

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